Firefly is a cancelled game that was in development by Pioneer LDC for the Playstation. There are not many info about this project, but a short article published in an old GameFan magazine (4 – 2) in which we can read that Firefly was going to be a mix between a platform, a shoot ’em up and a puzzle game. The description sounds interesting, but sadly Pioneer never released a anything like this on any console.
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
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Known in japanese as IKAZUCHI NO GO TOKU (or Kaminari no Gotoku: Choukousoku Igo) this was a simulation based on the ancient board game “Go” for Nintendo 64. Developed by specialist Toyogo Inc, that despite the name was an american company based in Lexington Massachusetts, the game title appeared in Edge magazine issue 41‘s japanese N64 release list with a planned release date for January ’97.
Seta Corporation, Like Thunder ‘Go’ publisher, never released it for unknown reasons thus negating to japanese N64 players the only Go simulation for the system.
Image taken from EGM issue 90, article written by Celine!
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Spearhead is a cancelled action / puzzle game that was in development by Scavenger for the Sega Saturn. There are not many info available on the project, but it seems that players would had take control of a “sphere suit” to explore 7 levels / mazes in the same vein as Marble Madness / Spindizzy Worlds / Super Monkey Ball. Sadly Scavenger had to close down in 1997 for economic issues and most of their games were never released.
Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scan!
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Adventures of Pinocchio is a beta version of Ottifanten, an action puzzle game developed by Bit Managers and released in 1998 for the GameBoy, based on some german comics. While there is a released Pinocchio game for the Game Boy mono, “Adventures of…” is a completely different title and Bit Managers never listed this one on their homepage, only Ottifanten. A playable version of this beta was leaked online, and it’s often confused for an official released game. Trying out the game shows that you cannot lose any lifes – the counter won’t work. This is no final release and there is none because it’s an unreleased game.
As we can read in a Wikipedia entry, the game relies on 115 separate levels of puzzle action, played by viewing the playing field in isometric projection. Pinocchio’s main objective is to get to the arrow (the exit) on the screne in order to move onto the next level. If the player is able to navigate Pinocchio to the objective before the timer runs out, he gets a certain number of points equal to the time left. Once this number reaches 500, the Fairy will bestow Pinocchio with an extra life.
As noticed by BigFred, a closer look at the dump floating around will reveil a weird internal name “Infrey Quest”, so we can speculate that before Pinocchio and Ottifanten, Bit Managers tried to develope their own original IP. When they did not find any publisher interested in Infrey Quest, they changed the game in Pinocchio and later into Ottifanten, with their more recognized characters.
Ottifanten uses the same game concept as well and the same music as Adventure of Pinocchio. It even looks like the basic stage design is the same.
The released Pinocchio for GameBoy looks like this:
Thanks a lot to BigFred for the contribution!
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Update: this game was cancelled in Japan, but released in USA as Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming!
Bakumono Characters Yasai De Pon! is a cancelled puzzle game that was developed by Marvelous for the DS. It featured many characters and locations of Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, known in Japan as Kimi to Sodatsu Shima.
Nintendo Everything made a post with some info about BC in 2009:
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